Wall St. Brief: Peter Thiel DUMPS Facebook Shares, Apple’s FATE Still Undecided

Jurors will start deliberating in the Samsung (SSNLF.PK) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) patent infringement case as closing arguments begin on Tuesday. But there’s a lot of work to be done: they will have to complete a verdict form with more than 700 questions. This long process comes on the heels of Apple’s big day on Monday, when its market cap hit $623.52 billion and made it the most valuable company in history.

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In other Samsung (SSNLF.PK) news, it will invest around $4 billion in its Austin, Texas chip plant, as it looks to to meet stronger demand for mobile devices’ components. The overhaul will include its existing production line and an increase in its system chips output. The spending for the plant will be added to the WON 2.25 trillion ($1.98 billion) of investment for a new South Korean logic-chip plant that the company had announced in June.

Last week, early Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) investor and director Peter Thiel earned $396 million after selling 20.06 million shares in the company after the IPO lockup period ended. Following the sale of of 640.1 million worth stock in the public offering, Thiel’s proceeds hit more than $1 billion. He now has around 8 million Facebook shares, down from his 44 million shares prior to the listing.

Dell’s (NASDAQ:DELL) fiscal quarter two earnings will come out after the bell on Tuesday. Analysts have estimated that earnings per share will decline to $0.45 from $0.54 in the previous year with revenue falling 6.3 percent to $14.66 billion. Last week, analysts gave cautious comments about the company and reiterated their “Buy” ratings.

Siemens (NYSE:SI) is supposedly holding talks about slashing thousands of jobs, especially in Europe, thanks to the weak economy. The company recently warned that its fiscal year goals will be hard to achieve and it will look to make some decisions in the fall. In the last 15 months, Siemens had been on a hiring binge, increasing the payroll by 23,000 employees.

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